The Story So Far
...actually, it began before that... Scene One: The Wounded Brigand Some of the party were witness to a farmer's wagon, which had come across a man dressed as a plainsman, and who had apparently been trampled by horses. Several people tried to administer aid to him, but as they tried to hold his thrashing body down, he breathed his last breath. His body was carted off to the Field of Rest, and people went about their business as best they could. * Scene Two: The Sunken Manor A tiefling boy named Milo was abducted by kobolds and brought down into a sunken manor, which they had turned into a lair. One of his friends, thinking that he had merely fallen down a sinkhole, ran to get help. The party members came together individually and went into the strangely preserved manor, battling kobolds as they went. They were as surprised as the unexpected occupant when they came across a changeling sorcerer, who had apparently been spying on the village of Riverdale, and seemed to be looking for something (or someone) specific. * Scene Three: The War Party As reward for saving his nephew, Belusto Cael Domon treated the party to a luxurious dinner. But their enjoyment of the meal was cut short as the village was attacked by a war band of goblins. As the party moved to protect the villagers, they began to suspect that the goblins were also looking for something specific. But they were not able to determine what, even from the goblins who took hostages...which was apparently against orders. In the aftermath of the attack, the Watch's scouts were able to determine that the horde of goblins had marched straight past two of the other Dales to reach Riverdale, which meant that they were either chasing something, or that something incredibly powerful was guiding them... * Scene Four: Chasing the Goblins The party was engaged by Watch Captain Eben Hainsworth to follow the goblins' trail back, and to see if they could determine why they came. This trek took them past a farmhouse which was still infested with goblins. Fortunately, a group of elves led by a wood elf Warder named Myrin and a high elf ambassador named Amaranth, intercepted them before they stumbled into the goblins' sights. The combined group defeated the goblins, and the wood elves went with the party, seeking to learn for themselves why a large force of goblins left the Vale. The high elves (somewhat to Amaranth's chagrin) were sent to Riverdale to learn what the Watch might have uncovered. * The party stopped in Woodsdale, to see if it was true that the goblin horde simply passed the village by. While they didn't learn anything, the Watch members of Woodsdale promised to ask around. Scene Five: The Goblin Outpost About a day or so into the Vale, the party came across Dakhul Khaar, a goblin outpost. From their vantage point, it seemed as if the outpost was not well manned, and they saw 11 figures, apparently plainsmen, spitted on pikes outside the gate, with a 12th pike standing ready for a new victim. After the party dealt with the goblins in the outpost, they discovered that the individual who resided in the top level of the tower had been receiving communications from Riverdale, likely from the changeling who they had encountered, since the maps were almost a dead match for the ones they had seen in the sunken manor. From the notes, it appeared that this changeling went by the name of Dusk. There were also maps of Eshad, the elven capital, and some general sketches of the plains to the south. Investigating further, the party discovered the weapons of the 11 dead plainsmen...and some of them recognized them as being forged by the blacksmiths in Riverdale. They also realized that these dead men were not plainsmen...just dressed up to look like them. * Scene Six: Returning to Riverdale On their way back to Riverdale, the group stopped in Woodsdale, where the Watch Captain there introduced them to Franco, a guard who had seen a man stumbling through the village late one night. The timing of this would have put him a day or so ahead of the goblin horde. The man looked grievously injured, so Franco went for help, but when he returned, the man was nowhere to be seen. The party returned to Riverdale with more questions than answers. With the thought that goblins may have wanted the trampled plainsman to adorn the 12th pike, they went to the Field of Rest. When they arrived, the caretaker tried to turn them away, and the party eavesdropped on him discussing some secret with an unknown person. This secret turned out to be that the plainsmen was in fact some sort of primordial undead creature, who proved incredibly difficult to put down. Over time, the party's questions multiplied, with very few answers to accompany them. More shadowy figures emerged, but this new group seemed intent on the party continuing to investigate the goblins, but to leave off there, and not to dig too deeply locally. The party, remembering that they were dealing with a changeling, began to investigate people who were riling others up, but that were loners themselves. This path allowed them to track down Dusk in his new hideout...although Dusk had intended it as a trap for them. They defeated the changeling, and found a strange beast in the dungeons, a troll which had somehow been altered using primordial magics. When they returned to Riverdale, they brought the changeling's body to the Watchtower, and called upon some friends to perform a divination ritual to force the corpse to reveal its secrets. This plan was almost foiled when a genasi assassin broke into the cells and attempted to mutilate the corpse. A Watchman nearly gave his life to prevent the assassin from fleeing with the changeling's tongue (which would have prevented the speak with dead ritual). Dusk's corpse revealed that there was another changeling, known as Midnight, who was responsible for creating the primordial beasts, and who Dusk seemed to report to. They learned that Midnight could be found at the Goblin Outpost. * Scene Seven: Heading Back to the Vale The trip back to the Vale proved to be a bit more dangerous than expected. The group ran across not only bands of goblins, but found evidence that the plainsmen had begun to range north, and had been attacking not only goblins, but the villagers of the Dales and members of the Watch. * Scene Eight: Dakhul Khaar Redux When the party returned to Dakhul Khaar, they discovered that it was being used to outfit and stage the goblin raids into the Dales. There were enough weapons and supplies already in the outpost to field an army. Upon reaching the top of the tower, where they believed they would find Midnight, they only found a captive kobold, who told them that Bkegn Bonefinder, the shaman who resided in the tower had gone to a place called Zaas Murgal, which was a sacred place to the goblins. Gim, the captive kobold, also told the party that Bkegn had been at the tower for some time. He was away leading a large scouting party when the plainsmen raiders massacred the small number of goblin troops remaining at the outpost, but returned in time to make sure that the plainsmen didn't get away (or at least none of them except that one). He agreed (somewhat reluctantly) to escort the party to Zaas Murgal, where Bkegn had gone to presumably retreive the Blades of Bane. (These blades are legend amongst the goblins...just one of them would have been enough to rally several tribes together under a single banner, and Gim suggested that Bkegn expected to find them all in Zaas Murgal). * Scene Nine: Zaas Murgal The party treked through the wilds of the Vale, avoiding the valley itself, which was supposed to be the goblins' stronghold. They emerged into a strange, uninhabited grasslands. The group followed the distant signs of campfires to a large mesa carved with impressive gateways. They avoided the two goblin bands camped outside, and went into this ancient temple. Within its depths, they fought and defeated Bkegn, who was indeed the changeling warlock Midnight. They managed to obtain one of the Blades of Bane, the scimitar known as Grey Tear, but the others had already been sent ahead...and presumably not all to the goblins. * The party translated some of Midnight's notes, and deduced that the best likely place to find the schemes of the changelings and/or genasi was in the Ravenwood. The messages they had found suggested that something was afoot with the K'Farath (the elven 'first among woodsmen', and the closest thing to a king the elves have) * On their trek back, the party stopped in Longdale to resupply and to share what they had found with the Watch. While there, it was noticed that someone wanted the party watched, and had employed some less than savory characters to do this watching. Scene Ten: Hunters in the Wood The party passed through Woodsdale to check in with Janus, the Watch captain there. When they arrived, they learned that the Watch had been dealing with more than just the goblins and the plainsman raiders (as if that wasn't enough). Since it had been several weeks since anyone had seen the eleven Warders, the Watch had sent patrols into the Ravenwood to check in. What they found was that the natural predators within the wood (wolves and boars) had been corrupted in some way. The party recognized this as the same strange corruption that had been inflicted on both the plainsman who the goblins were chasing, and the troll which Dusk had locked up in his lair. The party tracked the beasts back to a strange cave, which was guarded by several genasi, as well as an animated stone snake, which was guarding a strange crystal...likely the source of the corruption. The party defeated the genasi and the guardian, and destroyed the crystal, which has not eliminated the corruption, but does seem to have stopped it from spreading. * Scene Eleven: The Bloody Festival to be completed * Category:Myriden